1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of educational aids in the toilet training of young children.
2. Background Art
Toilet training of young children is of continuing concern to parents and the object of a body of educational technology aimed at aiding this learning process. This technology includes a body of children's literature and audio visual materials graphically illustrating the natural bodily functions of urination and defecation. Patented technology includes an assortment of animal and human dolls that are equipped to emit water and soft solids into potties to illustrate to the child the appropriateness of elimination into a toilet.
A doll that wets automatically when it is positioned to be set on a toilet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,441, issued Nov. 8, 1983. A toilet training kit disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,808, issued Feb. 14, 1994 includes a wetting doll and a miniature toilet equipped to accommodate sheets of material that dissolves when the doll emits water into the toilet. The doll disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,962, issued Jan. 28, 1992 is equipped to illustrate the entire digestive process, from ingestion of solids and liquids to ejection of these materials into a potty. U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,200, issued Apr. 7, 1984 discloses an animal figure equipped to emit liquid from an anterior port and a soft material such as a clay or craft dough from a posterior port when the front or rear of the figure is squeezed.
All of the above prior art devices attempt in one way or another to approach the real experience of the child contemplating use of the toilet. However, none of them include the visual impression of seeing a stool dropping into water, as is a very real part of the toilet training experience. One reason this may be true in the difficulty of handling and drying the simulated stool for reuse in the doll.